On February 19, 1923, a production of Sholem Asch's God of Vengeance (Got fun Nekome) opened at New York's Apollo Theatre on 219 West 42nd Street. The moment was auspicious for Jewish theatre in America. One of the more frequently produced and most critically acclaimed plays in the Yiddish canon, God of Vengeance had been performed internationally since its debut in 1907, not only in Yiddish, but in German, Italian, and Russian as well. However, it had never before been seen in English in New York at a major uptown venue like the Apollo. Coming off a two month run at two smaller downtown venues, where it had played to increasingly large and enthusiastic crowds, the English-language production seemed poised to “cross over” from the downtown margins to the Broadway mainstream, something which had never before occurred with any play from the Yiddish repertory. Moreover, the production represented the English-language stage debut of the celebrated Yiddish actor Rudolf Schildkraut in the commanding role of Yekel Tchaftchovitch. In other words, the event implicitly posed the question of whether there was a place for a “great” Yiddish play (albeit, in translation) starring a “great” Yiddish actor (admittedly, working in his third language) within the geographic and symbolic boundaries of Broadway.
Symbolic Boundaries and School Structure in New York and London Schools